Mrs. Smith's Statement.
Mrs. Smith was blind: she acted as she spoke, and wept on recalling the horrors of her early life. The house was large, and crowded with furniture. Smith presented Mrs. C. with a pistol as a souvenir, which he pulled out of his belt, saying, " You may depend on it!"
Henry Hale.
Well's Creek, Hawkesbury River, 4th Oct., 1845.
"I arrived in the third fleet on the 16th of October, 1791; it was on a Sunday we landed. The ship's name was Barrington, Captain Marsh. I was sent to Toongabbie. For nine months there I was on five ounces of flour a day—when weighed out, barely four; served daily. In those days we were yoked to draw timber, twenty-five in gang. The sticks were six feet long; six men abreast. We held the stick behind us, and dragged with our hands. One man came ashore in the Pitt; his name was Dixon; he was a guardsman. He was put to the drag; it soon did for him. He began on a Thursday and died on the Saturday, as he was dragging a load down Constitution-hill. There were thirteen hundred died there in six months. Men used to carry trees on their shoulders. How they used to die! The men were weak—dreadfully weak—for want of food. A man named Gibraltar was hung for stealing a loaf out of the governor's kitchen. He got down the chimney, stole the loaf, had a trial, and was hung the next day at sunrise. At this time a full ration was allowed to the governor's dog. This was Governor ——. I have seen seventy men flogged at night twenty-five lashes each. On Sunday evening they used to read the laws. If any man was found out of camp he got twenty-five. The women used to be punished with iron collars. In Governor King's time they used to douse them overboard. They killed one. Dr. —— was a great tyrant. Mine is a life grant from Governor Bourke—fourteen acres. I grow tobacco, wheat, and corn; just enough to make a living."